Megan Schulz wanted more and she’s taking a “wild and crazy” route to get it.

Yes, she was homecoming queen at Redford Thurston, where she graduated in 2008. She was a standout high school volleyball and soccer player who went on to excel as a goalkeeper for Dominican University in Chicago, Illinois.

Lean but not mean, the 28-year-old Schulz booted soccer out of her life after suffering ACL and MCL knee injuries during post-college pickup games. What she decided to do instead floored family, friends and anybody who knew her during her days at Thurston.

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Staying focused during a lifting workout is Megan Schulz.(Photo: TOM BEAUDOIN | SPECIAL TO HOMETOWNLIFE.COM)

She is a female bodybuilder, who Saturday will be competing in the Figure Division at the National Physique Committee’s Lenda Murray Detroit Classic. The contest begins at 11 a.m. at the Ford Performing Arts Center Michael A. Guido Theater in Dearborn, with finals slated for 5 p.m. (Call 310-904-3148 for tickets).

“I knew I had to stop playing soccer to stop getting injured and to also find a new challenge,” Schulz said before a lifting session Monday at L.A. Fitness in Livonia. “Something that would challenge me the same way that college ball challenged me, then I’d need to find something else. And that’s what bodybuilding does for me.”

Is Megan Schulz smiling because her 22-week prep for Saturday's NPC contest in Detroit is almost over?(Photo: THOMAS BEAUDOIN | SPECIAL TO HOMETOWNLIFE.COM)

A different life

Two years later, Schulz — whose day job is as a civil engineer for Michael Baker International, by the way — is geared up for her third NPC competition, having finished third and second in her first two.

A first-place finish Saturday will give her props and potentially the green light to compete for national recognition. A long-term goal is to earn her professional bodybuilding card.

“I think they’ll learn about a whole different world,” she said when asked about takeaways that Saturday’s audience should leave with. “It’s kind of like stepping into a different world. It’s crazy.

“But health and fitness is really something big and for us it’s an everyday thing. It’s not just a temporary thing or a quick diet or a yo-yo diet. It’s every single day, in and outside the gym, with our nutrition, with our training.”

She is competing in Figure Class B, for contestants between 5 feet, 1 inch, and 5 feet, 5 inches.

“They’re looking for everything,” Schulz said. “(Judges are) looking for overall looks. ... It’s pretty much a beauty pageant for athletes. They are looking at hair and makeup, skin tone. You need to get a crazy, dark competition tan so that it helps show muscle tone under the stage lights. If not, you get washed out and judges don’t see any muscle tone.

“They look for symmetry. They look for leanness. But with figure, it’s weird because, depending on where you are, what state you’re in and who’s judging, it’s all subjective. Some areas might be looking for a harder, leaner look. Some areas might be looking for a less-lean toned-up look.”

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Staying hydrated is essential for Megan Schulz as she powers through her pre-competition regimen.(Photo: TOM BEAUDOIN | SPECIAL TO HOMETOWNLIFE.COM)

Method to madness

Once the competition concludes, Schulz can finally take a deep breath after going through 22 weeks of intense prep — a period of constantly pushing herself beyond her physical limit in the gym (she can dead-lift 200 pounds and has reached the 600-pound mark on the leg press), while putting every morsel of food under a microscope before putting it into her body.

“You have to take the good with the bad,” Schulz said. “It’s miserable for a short amount of time to get on stage, but then you just remember why you’re doing it and you just keep pushing forward.”

Part of her daily routine is reviewing diet options via email with nutritionist Matt Kouba. But as early as Saturday night, her mom Debi Schulz-Rushlow and stepdad Jay Rushlow probably will take her out for a cheeseburger and a cold beer.

She won’t go overboard, however. Just as meticulously, she must slowly add calories and fat to her diet.

“Females usually don’t want to go below 15 percent body fat,” she said. “But for us to get on stage, we can get to 5-10 percent, I think I’m at 8 percent now and it’s miserable. I’m not going to lie.

“Our bodies naturally want to have that fat on there and to be healthy, so everything doesn’t shut down. You don’t want to stay ‘stage lean,’ you want to actually start reversing out right after your show if you’re not going to do another one.”

A burger binge, left unchecked, could add plenty of unwanted pounds in a heartbeat.

“You want to reverse diet the same amount of time you were dieting for,” Schulz said. “Reverse diet is where you slowly start to add in calories and foods, because what happens is, when you’re in this state for so long and you’re in this (caloric) deficit for so long, depending on how you extreme you get, your metabolism can get really, really slow.

“So when you come out, if you just start eating and binging, you can put on 30 pounds in three days. And that’s not even an exaggeration, it’s happened to me. You can put it on real fast and then you’re back to where you started, then you have to bring it all down for the next show.”

Displaying her chiseled and tanned physique during a recent bodybuilding competition is Redford Thurston alum Megan Schulz. She will participate Aug. 18 in the third NPC event of her two-year career.(Photo: DEBI SCHULZ-RUSHLOW)

Needed more

Schulz definitely is not where she started, however. When she decided to give up rec soccer, but still desiring a competitive challenge, she looked into “things like Ninja Warrior, Spartan Races and triathlons.”

She opted for the bodybuilding route.

“I didn’t know anything about it, I didn’t know anybody,” Schulz said. “All I did was I researched for it. I knew it was a lot of work, it was a big-time commitment, it was a lot of sacrifices. So I researched for an entire six months and then I just starting dieting and training myself to see if I could even reach levels I haven’t reached before.

“When I saw that it was working and it was something I could stick to, I reached out and ... originally it was just a nutrionist online. We picked a show 16 weeks from then and haven’t looked back since.”

Another part of the equation was dropping out of the social media picture, which meant losing contact with her Thurston classmates.

“It’s kind of funny, I didn’t tell anybody I was going to do it when I started,” Schulz said. “So for a whole year, I kind of fell off social media and when I did my first show (in October 2017), I put all my pictures up and they hadn’t known anything for a whole year, they just knew what I came from.

“So I came home and they’re, like, ‘You disappeared and fell off the face of the Earth for a year and then you come back looking like that!’" she said. "They were laughing at me. ... But it’s been a good vibe, it definitely has. And they’ve been really supportive.”

Schulz now is adding a bit of brawn to her beauty and brains. But she isn’t about becoming so muscle-bound that she gives up her femininity.

That’s a line she doesn’t plan to cross.

“Personally, I like the feminine lean muscle mass look, which is why I like the Figure Division,” Schulz said. “I feel it’s just enough muscle without losing my curves.”

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Striking a "quarter-turn' pose is Megan Schulz, the picture of confidence, poise and beauty.(Photo: TOM BEAUDOIN | SPECIAL TO HOMETOWNLIFE.COM)

If you have a compelling story to tell, contact Tim Smith at tsmith@hometownlife.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimSmith_Sports.

THE MEGAN SCHULZ FILE

Who: Megan Schulz, 28, a 2008 graduate of Redford Thurston. During her high school career, she was a goalkeeper for the Eagles girls soccer team and a setter for the volleyball team. She also was homecoming queen.

College: The 5-foot-5 Schulz earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Dominican University in Chicago, Illinois. She subsequently earned a bachelor's in architectural engineering and a master's degree in structural engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Stay up to date: To follow Schulz's progress, both this weekend and at future NPC events, go to her Instagram account, @smegsfit.